Diaspora Film Festival shines light on cultural diversity

Diaspora Film Festival shines light on cultural diversity. The Diaspora Film Festival will run from Tuesday, Nov. 1 through Sunday, Nov. 6 with screening and events taking place at the Carlton Cinema and Innis Town Hall. Image/COURTESY

The festival was founded in 2001 by its current director Shahram Tabe, an Iranian-Canadian who moved to Canada more than 20 years ago and wanted to continue his involvement in the arts.

Since then, it has grown from a small, day-and-a-half-long event to a full six days of films, discussions, workshops and more.

While the films have always shone a spotlight on the immigrant experience and cultural diversity, its popularity and acclaim have snowballed to the point where this year's festival will include a talk with renowned Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta.

Tabe said he hoped the festival would create a richer tapestry and a forum to facilitate cultural discussion and exchange.

"I thought it would help the cultural mosaic of Canada to have a festival like this, with films that represent the country's cultural diversity," he said. "The festival offers a stage for cultural translation."

If anything, the festival's success has become a challenge for the small group of volunteers to manage. Some 300 submissions were received this year alone and only 30 of those were selected.

Tabe said the festival could expand further, but he wants to keep it at its current size.

"It keeps the quality (of the films) high," he said. "Also, because everybody in the festival works on a volunteer basis, I don't want to extend it and stretch their abilities."

The theme for this year's Diaspora Film Festival is "Wave of Change" with documentary and narrative films from around the world tackling serious issues from those communities.

A panel discussion, Can Jews and Muslims Ever Be Friends (Again)? will examine the state of affairs in the long-standing Middle Eastern conflict and will follow David, a comedy about a young Muslim boy who is mistaken for a Jewish child.

Tabe said he hopes the panel discussion will help shed some light on the ongoing battle between the two cultures.

"We appreciate that there's a long, long history between these two communities that have lived together for hundreds and hundreds of years," he said. "They have different experiences, but I believe many of those differences are very artificial and superficial."

There will also be a North American premiere of films screened at the Gaza Women's Film Festival. That festival was started by female filmmakers in Gaza who had such a strong desire to share their stories, they showed their films on a bed sheet hung in a basketball court in the absence of an actual theatre venue.

"This will be people's only opportunity outside of Gaza to see these films," Tabe said.

The Diaspora Film Festival will include selections from close to home as well. Ryerson University graduate and Iranian-Canadian Ronak Ghorbani will screen her short film Sibil as part of the festival.

Sibil - the Farsi word for mustache - examines societal attitudes toward facial hair and the pressure young Middle Eastern women feel to have theirs threaded or otherwise removed.

"In the Iranian community, men have thick mustaches and it's a symbol of masculinity," she said. "It was difficult for me growing up because my white friends would have upper lip hair but it was blonde while I had to get mine threaded and still get mine threaded every week."

The Diaspora Film Festival will run from Tuesday, Nov. 1 through Sunday, Nov. 6 with screening and events taking place at the Carlton Cinema and Innis Town Hall. For tickets or information, visit www.diasporafilmfest.com